Natalia Tymkiv, Ukrainian Wikipedian and CFO of the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, who will be the special guest of the Perspectives on Women in Tech Summit 2025, is interviewed by Magda Tytuła.
What function in the world today, in which information and knowledge are among the key resources, does (and is to) Wikipedia perform?
Wikipedia is the largest collaborative collection of free knowledge in human history. It has recently been called the “factual netting that holds the whole digital world together.” Today, Wikipedia powers much of the internet from search engines to voice assistants; its human-made content is the main source of training data for generative AI tools like ChatGPT. In this moment, I believe that Wikipedia is more important than ever to help us develop a shared understanding of the world around us.
How is Wikipedia changing today?
Wikipedia's human-created knowledge plays – and will continue to play – a vital role in today's information ecosystem. Most commercially available models are trained on Wikipedia content, and Wikipedia is almost always the largest source of training data in their data sets. In an internet flooded with machine generated content, the reliable, human-created and curated content on Wikipedia becomes even more valuable.
And how do you see the future of Wikipedia in the face of the development of artificial intelligence?
The approach to AI on Wikipedia has always been that humans edit, improve, and audit the work done by AI. The Wikimedia Foundation has a team creating a new generation of AI models to continue to increase the capacity of volunteers. Our technology team regularly works with volunteers on features designed to make the work of editors more efficient, enabling them to focus time on edits that require complex human judgment. In addition, different language communities on Wikipedia have different processes to address AI generated content on Wikipedia.
How does Wikipedia defend itself from becoming a dangerous source of information (e.g., the threat of duplicating fake news, one-sided or subjective opinions and content)?
Over the past 23 years, Wikipedians have developed strong policies to ensure that the information you find on Wikipedia is reliable and accurate. Anyone can edit Wikipedia, but content added to the site has to meet a series of requirements around neutrality and verifiability. Every piece of information has to be backed up by a reliable source. The sources used are referenced and listed at the bottom of each article, so readers know where the information comes from. Wikipedia contributors also monitor articles for bias or false information. In many cases, inaccurate information on Wikipedia articles is corrected within minutes, especially on high-profile articles.
And how do you keep your information up to date in a world where knowledge changes so rapidly?
Because Wikipedia is edited more than 300 times a minute, volunteers are skilled at ensuring that the information on Wikipedia is up to date, especially on popular or highly visited topics. Experienced volunteers will review a “recent changes” feed of recent edits, and help make sure that new edits to articles about changing news events - from elections to natural disasters - are up to date with the latest information. From time to time there are hoaxes discovered in different language editions of Wikipedia, and usually these discoveries lead to improving the accuracy of Wikipedia by putting more emphasis on sources of information.
To support volunteers making sure that the information in Wikipedia is neutral, and reliable, Wikimedia Foundation supports them with tooling. And, for example, Wikimedia Poland, a Wikimedia organisation in Poland, provides trainings for Polish Wikipedia administrators and editors, including training in detecting disinformation or working with reliable sources.
How can sources such as Wikipedia influence the spread of certain content?
As one of the world's largest knowledge resources, it is critical for Wikipedia to be representative of the world around us. Women make up half of the world’s population, and yet, only 19% of all content on Wikimedia projects — including biographies on Wikipedia — is about women. The Wikimedia Foundation and the global Wikipedia volunteer communities have made a commitment to enhancing women-related content.
For example, in Poland, the Wikimedia Poland chapter has hosted an initiative called “The (Un)known Women of Wikipedia campaign” for the past several years. This initiative aims to close the gender gap by bringing forgotten women figures back to the global consciousness. Since this project first started, they have added more than 1800 women to Polish Wikipedia, and continued with more than 350 in the 2025 edition.
The idea behind these efforts is making females and their contributions more visible. The 2015 study of the USA political system, for example, indicates that “women elected to statewide office can inspire other women to enter politics and move up the ladder”, as they serve as a role model. If girls around the world can read about inspiring female role models not limited to only “traditional” jobs and positions – they can make better suited choices for their career. And Wikipedia is a perfect platform to reach billions, and fight stereotypes.
Why did you yourself join the Wikipedia community?
I created an account, because I noticed a mistake in an article I was reading — “somebody is wrong on the Internet” is a very powerful motivator. I actually started editing when I found information that was not easily available on the Internet. I was reading about a Ukrainian poet killed by the system, and I thought a Wikipedia article about him would be a better way to honour his memory than a post on my personal blog. I wanted to reach more people with the information I had to share, and this is a second very strong motivator. And, of course, preservation and enrichment of my own language; I wanted all the knowledge in the world to be available in Ukrainian. This third one is a really big reason to start contributing.
What values important to you personally are realized by Wikipedia?
Being a Wikipedian is to believe that with all bad and disturbing things happening in the world, things can become better. We can help get the information where it is needed, document, preserve. We live in an imperfect world editing imperfect Wikipedia, but striving for better. Wikipedia as a concept was considered impossible at some point in time – open editing by anyone in the world does not sound like a good idea with all the potential of internet trolling, harassment etc. And yet it somehow worked. And being a part of the miracle and good impossible is inspiring.
BIO
Nataliia Tymkiv currently serves as Financial Director of the Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law, a Ukrainian media policy and human rights nonprofit. She grew up in Western Ukraine and has a Masters degree in Public Administration and a Specialist degree in Records Management and Information Activities.
On the Wikimedia projects, Nataliia has been an active contributor in 2011, and shortly after became an administrator of Ukrainian Wikipedia.
In late 2012, Nataliia joined the Board of Wikimedia Ukraine as Treasurer. In 2013 she was selected to serve as volunteer Executive Director of Wikimedia Ukraine in addition to her position on the Board. In 2015, she returned to her position as Vice Chair and Treasurer of the Board.
Throughout her time on the Board, Nataliia helped oversee the growth and expansion of Wikimedia Ukraine in a number of ways, including improvements in transparency and governance-related processes, growing Wikimedia Ukraine staff, and building and maintaining donor, partner, and community relationships
